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Steel: Innovative tubes for lightweight automotive construction

With the NSB® NewSteelBody, the Steel segment demonstrated that thin-walled, intelligently designed steel tubes hold the key to cost and weight reduction in automotive construction. As development partners to the auto industry, our engineers are now working to further smooth the path of these tailored tubes into volume production. We see particular opportunities for a new generation of tubes with variable cross sections, in which recesses and raised elements can be incorporated during production. Following successful laboratory trials, the process developed for this will be tested on a pilot line in 2006. These new tubes will permit even lighter automotive bodies with lower fuel consumption.

Weight can also be saved in automotive construction by using tailored strips, which are also proving popular in the construction and furniture industries. A unique line designed in-house allows steels of different thickness, grade or coating to be joined by an uninterrupted laser weld several hundred meters long. The result is a strip which is tailored from the outset to the stresses in the finished part and can be supplied in coils weighing up to 15 metric tons. The team responsible for this development won 2nd prize in the 2005 ThyssenKrupp Innovation Contest.

We have developed a unique casting-rolling process for the cost-effective production of magnesium sheet which significantly shortens the conventional route. A successful pilot line has been built in collaboration with the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology. In the future, magnesium sheet will take on increasing importance as a material for weight-optimized body parts.

Alongside magnesium sheet and high-strength yet formable steel sheet, automobile designers are also showing great interest in new coated body sheets. In the future, it will be possible to supply steel sheet to body stamping plants with a newly developed zinc-magnesium coating. Organic precoated sheets are already available today. Using these materials, automotive OEMs and suppliers can cut out several of their own production steps. The PLATAL® Metall-Look grade – a hot-dip galvanized steel strip with a polyester film coating – has been developed for the appliance industry. Vacuum-deposited aluminum in the film gives it a metal look and makes the surface insensitive to fingerprints. The coating was developed in collaboration with film and adhesive manufacturers.

Stainless: New stainless steel finishes

Surface appearance and functionality are also of increasing importance in stainless steel applications. For this reason, a key area of innovation in the Stainless segment is developing new finishes which offer attractive looks and improved properties. In the past fiscal year alone, we launched six new design finishes for flat-rolled stainless steel products. The designs are applied in an additional cold rolling process.

New textured finishes and a so-called motif finish have now also been added to the precision strip range. The motif finish allows company logos or other user-selected motifs to be rolled directly into the precision strip. Components made from the strip are given an unmistakable identity and offer customers a new way of differentiating their products on the market. The finish also makes product piracy more difficult.

A transparent coating which makes stainless steel surfaces more scratch resistant and easier to clean is close to production readiness. The transparent UV-curing coating was developed in a collaborative effort between the DOC® surface engineering center and a paint manufacturer. The coating is applied in a continuous process and subsequently cured under special ultraviolet light.

For ceramic components in vehicle engines, we succeeded in developing an alloy of steel, chromium, manganese and carbon which displays exactly the same thermal expansion as ceramic and can therefore be used in piezoelectric elements in which electricity is generated under high pressure. This is a key function for fuel-efficient engine injection systems. The new nickel-base alloy Crofer 22, produced in an enhanced vacuum melting process, was developed for use in fuel cell technology. This development won 3rd prize in the ThyssenKrupp Innovation Contest. Progress was also made in research into titanium alloys. These new materials offer improved electrical conductivity and high temperature resistance.

Automotive: Electrohydraulic power steering with parking-assist feature

In the year under review, two companies of ThyssenKrupp Automotive won prizes in our Innovation Contest. Joint 2nd prize was awarded to the team that further developed the hot stamping process, which is already in production use. The hot stamping process forms complex parts – which can also comprise different materials, e.g. different high-strength steel grades – in a single stamping operation. Joint 3rd prize went to the new DuoPML steering system. This is an electrohydraulic system which delivers decreasing steering assistance with increasing speed and offers high convenience with lane-holding and parking-assist features.

In the chassis area, we developed the air supply system for the air suspension of a German sport utility vehicle. Work also started on the preliminary development of an independent suspension system for a new, innovative truck chassis, and made further improvements to the functions of the DampMatic damping system. The Automotive segment's lightweighting capabilities were augmented by the development of a fiber ceramic piston rod, ultrahigh-strength springs and split tubular stabilizers.

In the area of production technology for car plants, we developed a robotic door assembly system which provides automatic positioning for an ideal fit. Standardized elements make the system easier to repair than conventional solutions. In the current year, we will also conclude a project for the laser welding of zinc-coated and high-strength body parts.

In our camshaft/crankshaft product area we made further improvements to our lightweight camshafts and – in collaboration with an engine manufacturer – brought our Presta DeltaValveControl system to production readiness. This continuously variable valve control system reduces fuel consumption and exhaust emissions while significantly enhancing driving enjoyment through higher engine efficiency. For a German automotive OEM we are currently developing a new differential gear module intended mainly for trucks. A further innovative development is a lightweight differential with an aluminum housing.

Technologies: New developments in plant construction and shipbuilding

We are continuing our development work in the high-potential area of oil sands mining. In addition to mobile and semi-mobile plant, we are concentrating on the development of low-cost machinery and equipment to optimize the entire process chain. They include a new material flow control system with two conveyors to bridge downtimes, as well as innovative processing and treatment systems. Oil sands are sandstone deposits containing viscous heavy and extra-heavy oils. Large, as-yet unmined deposits make oil sands an important source of oil for the future.

In November 2003, the world's first industrial-scale plant employing the Uhde EnviNOx® process to remove nitrous oxide (N₂O) from nitric acid production offgases started operation in Linz/Austria. Two years of operation have shown that the special catalyst in this process reduces emissions of the greenhouse gas N₂O by up to 99%. Nitrogen oxide emissions were reduced by the same amount. For this outstanding contribution to climate protection, the Austrian plant was awarded the "Klimaretter-Preis" (Climate Saver Award) by the Province of Upper Austria. The success of this process is a clear demonstration of how systematic research and development can translate an innovative idea into a highly regarded product. In December 2003, this development also won 2nd prize in the innovation contest run by the European Environmental Press organization (EEP Silver Award). In the 2005 ThyssenKrupp Innovation Contest, the development team was awarded 1st prize.

Our new Melt To Resin (MTR) process significantly shortens the production chain for bottle-grade PET chips. Advantages include 20% lower production costs, improved quality and lower energy consumption. The world's first line utilizing this process will start operation at the end of 2006 with a capacity of 600 metric tons per day.

In shipbuilding, our engineers are working to optimize air-independent propulsion systems for submarines using different technical approaches. Our Emden facility is concentrating on optimizing the closed-cycle diesel system, which uses liquid oxygen for underwater operation. Our Kiel site is developing a methanol reformer which extracts the hydrogen required for fuel cells from methanol. The methanol reformer should be ready for production by 2009 and could allow non-nuclear submarines with fuel cell propulsion systems to remain submerged longer than ever before.

Given the competitive pressure in the shipbuilding industry, it is increasingly important to pool engineering and production resources efficiently across sites. The KonSenS collaborative research project aims to improve the management and utilization of modern engineering standards with a view to significantly shortening the engineering phase. Engineers have access to an expert system which supports them in their work and promotes the use of standardized components and repeat parts for which engineering solutions are already available.

A further major development project is the Multi Service Board Network (MSB), which is being pursued jointly with T-Systems. MSB is a redundant, high-availability optical network which can unite practically all the network-based systems on board a ship, such as alarm, communications, service and personal entertainment systems. Wiring requirements can be reduced by around 60%.

Elevator: Intelligent passenger boarding bridges and elevators

To reduce boarding times for the world's biggest passenger aircraft – the Airbus A380 – ThyssenKrupp has developed a new passenger boarding bridge. The technical challenge lay in connecting safely to the upper deck door of the A380 to enable simultaneous boarding and disembarking from the upper and lower decks. Realized at great technical effort, the lift height of a proven hydraulic bridge has been raised from 5.4 meters to 8.2 meters. Using this new passenger boarding bridge in conjunction with a conventional bridge serving the lower deck reduces boarding and disembarking times from 45 to just 38 minutes. We have already installed eight of these boarding bridges at six airports worldwide, and orders have been received for a further 30. To also allow the upper doors behind the wing of the A380 to be served in the future, ThyssenKrupp has developed the new "cantilever over the wing" bridge, which will reduce boarding time to 24 minutes. The bridge is cantilevered over the wing without touching it.

The innovative Destination Selection Control (DSC) system used on ThyssenKrupp elevators also saves time. One touch of the touch screen provides information on where the passenger is and where he wants to go. The Destination Selection Control system then selects the elevator cab which will get him there quickest and coordinates it with the wishes of other passengers. Time consuming stops are avoided and passengers reach their destination more quickly. The Destination Selection Control system provides time savings of up to 30%, meaning that capacities are correspondingly higher than conventional elevator groups. At the request of a customer in Sydney, the first ever combined system with DSC and traditional buttons in the cabs has been installed.

Services: Innovative materials and industrial services

Development projects in the Services segment, the ThyssenKrupp Group's materials and industrial service provider, focus on innovations in applications and processes. A magnetic crawler has been developed which can remove coatings from large tanks in explosive atmospheres without polluting the environment and without generating any sparks or static charges, thus meeting safety requirements. For the eco-friendly refurbishment of concrete surfaces by recoating, we have developed and successfully launched several new products in collaboration with a specialist company. Our electrostatic oilers, which have a new capillary structure for particularly fine oil distribution, are both ecological and economic. Microlubrication of this kind is used, for example, in automotive stamping plants and in the production of domestic appliances.